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COLLECTORS 


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COLLECTORS 

AN    ADDRESS 

Read  to  the  Club  of  Odd  Volumes  at  its  Annual 

Meeting,  Boston,  Decembee  18,  1907 

/ 

BY   THE    PRESIDENT 

JAMES   FROTHINGHAM   HUNNEWELL 


BOSTON 
THE  CLUB   OF  ODD  VOLUMES 

1908 


Copyright,  1908 
By  Thk  Club  of  Odd  Volumes 


THB  UNIVERSITT  PRBBS,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.  8.  A. 


COLLECTORS 


COLLECTORS 


A 


.T  the  beginning  of  another  year  of 
our  Club  life,  several  subjects  for  remarks 
occur  to  me,  or  have  been  suggested. 

Besides  speaking  as  presiding  of&cer  at 
more  than  eighty  meetings,  and  on  the 
many  varied  topics  then  considered,  I  have 
presented,  and  read  or  spoken,  at  least 
fifteen  papers.  Still  there  are  subjects  as 
yet  untouched,  or  hardly  touched,  on  which 
I  would  like  to  talk,  for  they  much  interest 
me,  and  I  hope  would  interest  you;  and 
still  the  question  remained  open,  until  a 
very  simple  thought  occurred  to  me,  and 
that  may  well  be  the  subject  for  an  address 
to-night,  on  our  Twentieth  Anniversary. 

All  of  us  are  Collectors,  and  some  review, 
necessarily  condensed,  of  what  elsewhere 
they  were,  and  what  they  did,  and  results 

[7] 


COLLECTORS 

that  followed,  is  consistent  with  our  activ- 
ities and  purposes. 

It  is  not  necessary,  and  indeed  there  is 
not  now  time,  to  consider  anything  in 
Antiquity.  We  begin  with  some  of  the 
great  —  the  greatest  —  collectors  in  the 
Middle  Ages;  these  were  some  of  the  Mo- 
nastic Orders,  notably  the  Benedictines. 
Literature  and  History  owe  a  large  debt 
of  gratitude  to  this  illustrious  Order.  The 
libraries  they  made  or  gathered  were,  in 
their  time,  the  shrines  and  strongholds  of 
Civilization.  All  the  world  has  never  seen 
a  grander  and  more  impressively  seated 
institution  than  Saint  Benedict's  Monastery 
on  the  Monte  Cassino.  Venerable  in  age 
and  history,  vast  in  size,  with  its  church 
interior  covered  by  gold  and  marbles, 
gorgeous  even  for  Italy,  it  stands  on  its 
lofty  heights  looking  out  over  the  craggy 
Appenines  and  the  wild  Abruzzi.  Secluded 
in  quiet,  simple  rooms  is,  or  was,  the  famous 
library.  Through  many  a  generation  it 
grew  by  the  patient  art  of  the  transcriber, 

[8] 


COLLECTORS 

and  then  by  the  far  more  rapid  work  of  the 
press,  but  always,  in  both  periods,  by  the 
spirit  of  the  collectors  there  gathered,  and 
continuing  through  the  centuries.  In  place 
after  place,  end  to  end  of  Italy,  this  work 
went  on.  It  culminated  in  the  achievement 
by  the  greatest  of  ecclesiastic  powers,  that 
of  the  Supreme  Pontiffs,  in  their  wonder  of 
the  world,  the  Vatican  Library.  Honor 
and  treasure  of  Civilization  it  grew,  and  has 
remained,  and  thanks  to  Heaven  the  spoiler 
has  not  entered,  as  into  the  Monasteries. 

On  similar,  though  on  lesser,  yet  on  grand 
scale,  was  the  work  of  the  collectors  in  the 
Monasteries  of  England.  After  the  labors 
of  the  Scriptorium,  it  was  in  one  of  them 
that  the  Art  of  Printing  had  its  first  home 
in  that  land.  In  many  an  one  of  them  the 
collectors  gathered,  and  the  precious  results 
of  the  collectors'  labors  abided  until  that 
Day  of  Doom,  wheu  Henry  Tudor,  Eighth 
of  the  name,  by  imperious  passion,  by  stress 
of  politics,  let  loose  greed  to  ravage  those 
wonderful  institutions. 
[9] 


COLLECTORS 

Never,  otherwise,  in  the  long  history  of 
the  Imperial  Island,  have  there  been  such 
institutions,  homes  of  collectors  built  in 
such  grandeur  and  beauty.  Monasteries 
have  been  world  wide,  but  nowhere  built 
with  more  beauty.  Nowhere  in  the  land 
where  they  stood,  filled  as  it  is  and  has  been 
with  monuments  of  its  peoples'  history,  are 
there  now  other  such  impressive  relics. 

Printing  in  England  that  began  at  West- 
minster—  and  to-day  they  show  the  very 
spot  —  was  soon  established  at  St.  Albans. 
Prom  these  places  started  the  immense 
development  of  book-collecting  in  that 
country  and  in  the  wide  English  speaking 
world.  The  bookmen,  and  any  other  class 
of  men,  could  not  have  started  from  nobler 
homes.  To-day  these  homes  stand  vast  and 
impressive  examples  of  monumental  art  and 
history  and  religion,  and  also  of  the  grandeur 
and  beauty  of  monastic  conception  and 
achievement.  Many  of  the  extensive  and 
varied  buildings  of  both  institutions  have 
been  destroyed,  but  in  each  place  the  chief 
[  10] 


COLLECTORS 

of  them  stands  in  glory.  We  realize  what 
these  institutions  were  in  their  prime  as 
we  also  realize  that  Westminster  and  St. 
Albans  were  simply  parts  of  an  immense 
whole,  churches  of  Monasteries. 

Take  another  example,  where  the  collect- 
ing and  saving  of  books  is  said  to  haye  been 
very  notable  —  Glastonbury.  Consecrated 
and  used,  for  services  of  religion,  for  nearly 
a  thousand  years,  of  immense  extent  and 
exceptional  grandeur,  its  occupants,  we  are 
told,  were  collectors,  and  had  a  great  library. 
Nobly  housed,  and  well  cared  for,  continued 
the  library,  until  passion  and  politics  of  a 
King,  and  greed  of  robbers,  seized  the 
ancient  and  glorious  home  of  piety  and  of 
the  collectors,  hung  the  last  Abbot  on  Tor 
Hill,  because  he  would  not  surrender  his 
trust,  and  reformed  the  Monasteiy  into  utter 
ruin,  its  stones  into  field-walls  and  pig-pens, 
its  library  into  kindlings  and  wrapping- 
paper.  But  the  souls  of  the  old  collectors 
rest  in  Heaven  —  their  work  in  their  time 
well  done.  Similar  devastation  swept  over 
[11  ] 


COLLECTORS 

all  England;  it  was  a  woeful  time  for 
Caxtons. 

Let  me  mention  another  example  by- 
quotation  from  a  book  I  have  been  reading 
since  writing  the  above  lines  —  Bradley's 
Wiltshire,  page  183,  where  he  describes 
the  wrecking  of  the  grand  Abbey  of 
Malmesbury,  and  the  barbarous  destruction 
of  its  noble  library.  "Thus,''  says  he, 
"  did  some  men  of  Wiltshire  plug  their  ale 
casks  and  clean  their  guns  with  the  precious 
records  of  medieval  history,  while  their 
neighbors  blew  up  prehistoric  temples  to 
build  pigstyes." 

Then  ensued  collecting  of  a  sort  known 
even  to  our  time;  the  private,  though  he 
might  be  titled,  collector  appeared  and 
continued.  Monasteries  disappeared,  but 
throughout  the  land  remained  or  arose  the 
Eesidence,  and  there,  chiefly  in  the  country, 
lived  collectors  on  small  or  large  scale, 
forming  libraries  of  various  duration. 

Permanent  as  have  been  many  English 
families  in  occupation  of  ancestral  homes, 

[   12] 


COLLECTORS 

the  tenure  could  hardly  be  as  prolonged  as 
that  of  a  self-perpetuating  institution  like 
a  monastery.  Still  there  have  been  in 
England,  as  perhaps  in  no  other  country, 
many  long  established  family  libraries,  the 
existence  of  which  began  with  the  enterprise 
of  a  collector.  It  may  be  the  inevitable  y 
in  human  affairs,  that  has  ultimately  caused 
a  dispersion,  for,  in  some  ways  regrettably, 
this  has  in  large  number  of  cases  proved 
unavoidable.  There  is  a  certain  fascination 
about  such  collections  —  some  of  us  who 
saw  the  Carter  Brown  library  in  its  spacious 
and  charming  old  family  home  can  have 
and  appreciate  this  feeling. 

In  the  limits  of  this  Address,  that  pro- 
poses to  review  our  subject  to  the  present 
time,  we  cannot  illustrate  it  by  full  lists; 
we  can  only  use  examples. 

Notwithstanding  many  a  dispersion,  there 
are  still  valuable  libraries  in  old  mansions. 
At  Burleigh,  the  Marquis  of  Exeter's,  and 
Longleat,  the  Marquis  of  Bath's,  each  one  of 
the  grandest  mansions  of  Queen  Elizabeth's 
[  13] 


COLLECTORS 

reign,  are  large  collections,  as  I  saw  during 
the  past  summer.  In  more  recent  mansions, 
like  Chatsworth,  the  Duke  of  Devonshire's, 
and  Eaton  Hall,  the  Duke  of  Westmin- 
ster's, for  instance,  are  superb  libraries, 
as  also  at  Alnwick  Castle,  the  Duke  of 
Northumberland's,  and  Castle  Howard,  the 
Earl  of  Carlisle's  —  all  of  which  I  have  seen 
less  recently. 

In  many  smaller  homes  there  have  been 
lesser,  but  precious,  evidences  of  old  collect- 
ing, but  there  has  been  great  ransacking  of 
the  secluded  places. 

Of  the  great  private  libraries  that  have 
been  dispersed  there  are  many  examples. 
In  1812  occurred  the  forty-two  days'  sale 
of  the  extraordinary  library  of  John,  Duke 
of  Eoxburghe  (Bib.  Dec.  iii,  51).  Although 
the  books  were  scattered,  the  result  of  the 
sale  was  the  formation  of  the  Roxburghe 
Club,  thirty-one,  and  later  forty,  members, 
and  the  long  series  of  publications  they 
prepared.  Another  notable  sale  was  that  of 
Sir  Mark  Masterman  Sykes's  library  and 
prints  in  1824.  \  u  ] 


COLLECTORS 

During  the  earlier  part  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century,  Charles  Spencer,  third  Earl  of 
Sunderland,  formed  a  library  "  famous 
throughout  Europe,"  that  for  nearly  a 
century  and  a  half  occupied  the  stately 
gallery  at  Blenheim  Palace,  from  which  it 
was  removed  and  sold  1881-83.  The  long 
and  grand  apartment  is  now  redecorated, 
and  is  a  combination  of  drawing-room  and 
library,  and  contains  a  large  number  of 
sumptuous  modern  books.  At  about  the 
same  time,  1882  and  1883,  removed  from 
Hamilton  Palace,  was  sold  the  very  large 
and  rich  library  of  William  Beckford  of 
Fonthill  Abbey,  that  formed  a  part  of  the 
library  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton.  In  1885, 
from  Osterly  Park,  the  Earl  of  Jersey's 
"important  collection"  went  to  Sotheby's 
Auction-room,  five  months  after  Sir  John 
Hayf ord  Thorold's  went  there  from  Syston 
Park.  In  January  1886  from  Banbury  went 
also  there  Michael  WodhulFs  triumphs  of 
collecting  between  1764  and  1816.  Curious 
parts  of  his  books  are  his  memoranda  in  a 

[15] 


COLLECTORS 

bad  hand  and  by  a  bad  pen,  carefully 
omitted  in  the  sale  catalogue,  as  for  instance 
(No.  1208)  in  a  volume  that  brought  £130, 
Mr.  Wodhuirs  note  that  Sep.  12,  1779,  he 
bought  it  in  the  room  for  a  guinea  and  a 
half. 

Of  the  older  collections  not  dispersed  the 
most  famous,  and  perhaps  most  precious,  of 
all  English  private  libraries  is  that  dating 
chiefly  from  1790,  formed  by  Earl  Spencer 
at  Althorp,  but  it  is  no  longer  in  its  old 
home  and  is  now  in  the  dismal  smoke  of 
Manchester.  At  the  Annual  Meeting  Dec. 
23,  1903,  I  read  a  paper  on  the  "King's 
Tracts"  in  the  British  Museum,  a  rare 
example  of  the  vicissitude,  the  romance, 
and  the  value  of  collecting.  Formed  of  all 
obtainable  printed  matter  relating  to  the 
Civil  War,  at  great  cost  of  labor  and  money, 
having  all  sorts  of  escapes,  generations  later 
bringing  a  mere  fraction  of  money  cost  to 
the  owners,  it  yet  remains  substantially 
intact,  I  understand,  evidence  that  could  not 
be  duplicated  about  an  important  period  in 
[  16] 


COLLECTORS 

national  history.  Pecuniarily  it  was  the 
reverse  of  Mr.  WodhulFs  book;  as  a  service 
to  country  and  history  it  was  and  is  a  glory 
to  the  collector,  George  Thomason. 

In  that  vast  aggregate  of  collections  in 
Art  and  Literature,  the  British  Museum,  it 
may  be  difficult  to  mention  one  pre-eminent. 
The  King's  Library  by  rank  and  fact  has 
precedence.  Of  private  collections  the 
Grenville  Library  is  a  noble  monument  to 
the  patriot  and  scholar  who  formed  it  — 
Thomas  Grenville.  In  a  secure  building, 
and  in  glazed  —  and  locked — cases,  its  treas- 
ures are  seen.  A  great  part  of  it,  he  said, 
was  "  purchased  by  the  profits  of  a  sinecure 
office  given  me  by  the  Public.  ...  I  feel  it 
to  be  a  debt  and  a  duty  that  I  should 
acknowledge  my  obligation  by  giving  the 
Library  so  acquired  to  the  British  Museum 
for  the  use  of  the  Public." 

The  most  amazing  example  of  private 
collecting  now  intact  in  the  British  Empire, 
we  might  perhaps  safely  say  in  the  world,  is 
the  Wallace  Collection,  Manchester  Square, 

[17] 


COLLECTORS 

in  the  large  family  residence  adapted 
for  it;  painting,  bronzes,  armor,  porcelain, 
furniture,  almost  every  form  of  art  bric-a- 
brac,  are  shown  in  profusion,  and  there  are 
bindings  and  illuminated  books.  Not  only 
is  it  amazing  that  such  a  collection  could  be 
made,  largely  by  one  man,  but  also  that  the 
articles,  especially  rich  French  Eighteenth 
Century  furniture,  have  been  left  in  the 
world. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  American  Anti- 
quarian Society  April  1896,  in  "Notes  on 
Early  American  Literature,''  I  reviewed 
the  extent  to  which  our  people  before  the 
Eevolution  were  collectors  and  owners  of 
books.  It  appeared  that  they  were  to  only 
a  very  small  extent.  Eecently,  by  another 
member,  the  investigation  has  been  enlarged, 
and  an  even  more  positive  conclusion 
reached ;  it  is  that  the  first  two  generations 
in  our  country  were  practically  without 
books  and  literature. 

Libraries  were  few  and  small,  and  even 
some  of  those  were  burned  or  lost  at  an 

[  18  ] 


COLLECTORS 

early  date.  Three  before  1775  are  well 
known,  for  they  were  very  exceptional. 
Governor  Hutchinson's,  one  of  them,  was 
destroyed  by  a  mob  in  Boston,  August  1765 
—  one  of  the  most  disgraceful  acts  in  our 
history.  Another  was  that  of  the  Reverend 
Thomas  Prince,  the  result  of  long  labor,  at 
his  death  (1758)  given  as  a  trust  to  the  Old 
South  Church.  Depleted  by  acts  of  war  and 
other  shrinkage,  it  is  now  deposited  in  the 
Public  Library.  The  third,  and  perhaps  the 
greatest,  of  the  three  was  formed  by  four,  or 
five,  generations  of  Mathers.  It  remained 
probably  intact  until  the  Revolution,  and 
then  there  is  a  mystery  about  it  that, 
twenty  years  ago,  I  tried  to  clear  up.  The 
statement  was  repeatedly  made  as  historical 
that  it  was  burned  in  the  destruction  of 
Charlestown  June  17, 1775,  but  after  diligent 
inquiry  I  could  find  no  clear  contemporary 
evidence  that  it  was,  but  strong  presumptive 
evidence  that  it  could  not  have  been.  Sub- 
sequently I  have  found  a  statement  in  a 
letter  printed  in  (June?)  1775,  that  "Dr. 

[  19] 


COLLECTORS 

Mather  had  his  whole  furniture,  with  his 
library,  plate,  etc.,  consumed  in  the  fire  at 
Charlestown."  Still,  years  ago  I  counted 
eleven  hundred  of  the  books  on  the  shelves 
of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society.  Mr. 
Wm.  H.  Whitmore  (Prince  Cat.  viii)  thought 
that  the  Mather  Library  "  wasted  piecemeal 
as  it  passed  from  neglect  to  utter  dispersion.* ' 
The  Eeverend  Dr.  Samuel  Mather,  the  last 
owner  of  the  collection  entire,  died  June 
27,  1785.  In  his  long  will,  dated  thirty-four 
days  earlier,  he  left  it  to  be  substantially 
a  family  library  until  he  had  a  descendant 
a  minister,  to  whom  it  should  be  given. 
There  are  particulars  too  long  to  be  quoted 
here  from  a  copy  before  me.  It  seems  as  if 
there  must  have  been  many  books,  and  yet 
by  appraisal  Oct.  29,  following,  the  valuation 
is  so  small  that  it  could  only  be  one  of  a 
fraction  of  the  entire  collection.  I  am  still 
without  conclusive  evidence  that  it  was 
burned  in  Charlestown,  but  I  feel  sadly  sure 
that  the  greatest  example  of  early  American 
collecting  ended  in  dismal  wreck. 

[20] 


COLLECTORS 

After  the  Eevolution  the  most  distin- 
guished of  all  Americans  was,  to  a  consider- 
able extent,  a  collector.  George  Washington 
formed  and  left  a  library  of  nine  hundred 
volumes.  Its  history  is  also  curious.  It, 
also,  ceased  to  be  a  family  library,  and  not 
very  long  after  his  death  was  dispersed, 
but  happily  few  of  its  parts  have  been  lost. 
By  far  the  largest  number  of  the  volumes 
now  together  is  —  thanks  to  Boston  intelli- 
gence and  money  —  now  here  in  the  Boston 
Athenaeum,  some  354  volumes  and  several 
hundred  unbound  pamphlets. 

During  the  Nineteenth  Century,  espe- 
cially the  latter  two-thirds,  collectors  in 
our  country  became  numerous,  active,  and 
successful.  Years  ago,  on  a  minor  line  of 
collecting,  I  laid  aside  sale  catalogues  of 
private  libraries;  the  more  important, 
usually  priced,  were  bound.  For  some 
time  I  gathered  from  New  York  and  else- 
where, but  later  chiefly  from  Boston,  as  the 
number  and  bulk  of  the  catalogues  became 
inconvenient;  I  must  have  400  of  them.   It 

[21   ] 


COLLECTORS 

is  safe  to  say,  I  think,  that  over  500  private 
American  libraries  have  been  sold  within 
the  past  thirty  years,  and  there  seems  to  be 
no  end  of  the  offerings.  While  many  of 
these  libraries  were  of  moderate  size  and 
value,  there  were  not  a  few  important. 

Two  of  them,  rivalled  by  very  few  in  the 
world,  have  been  given  to  corporate  uses, 
the  John  Carter  Brown  and  the  James 
Lenox.  The  largest  and  most  important 
library  of  Americana  ever  dispersed  in  this 
country,  and  one  that  can  never  be  dupli- 
cated, was  that  of  George  Brinley,  sold 
1879  to  1893.  The  sale  of  the  First  Part  in 
New  York,  1879,  was  memorable ;  never  had 
such  an  amount  of  early  New  England 
Americana  been  offered  together,  and  the 
attendance  was  exceptional.  I  was  almost 
the  only  private  buyer  present  from  this 
region,  and  I  look  back  on  that  sale  some- 
what as  Dr.  Dibden  might  have  regarded 
the  Roxburghe ;  but  alas !  no  club  followed, 
and  of  the  book-men  I  met  there  I  do  not 
now  know  of  one  living. 

[22] 


COLLECTORS 

While,  as  already  indicated,  a  large  part 
of  the  American  private  libraries  formed 
in  the  last  century  have  been  sold  and  dis- 
persed, there  are  notable  examples  of  others 
preserved  and  intact.  The  two  greatest 
have  been  mentioned.  In  the  Boston 
Public  Library,  among  minor  collections 
gathered  there,  are  two  large  and  important. 
One  is  the  library  of  a  historic  family,  per- 
haps the  most  distinguished  in  America, 
the  Adams;  and  the  other  of  an  eminent 
Bostonian  chiefly  prominent  in  scholarship 
and  literature,  George  Ticknor.  The 
former  library  relates  largely  to  public 
affairs,  the  latter  to  Spanish  literature. 

Treasured  worthily  by  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society  is  the  magnificent  library 
of  English  literature  gathered  and  given 
by  Thomas  Dowse,  and,  in  another  room, 
is  that  of  the  Kev.  Dr.  Eobert  Gr.  Waterson. 

At  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  besides  the 
Washington  books  already  mentioned,  is 
the  remarkable  and  large  collection  of  pam- 
phlets made  early  in  the  last  century  by 

[23   ] 


COLLECTORS 

William  S.  Shaw,  a  striking  example  of  the 
wisdom  of  the  collector.  I  have  been  told 
that  he  went  from  house  to  house  and  gath- 
ered publications  that  certain  superior 
beings  (as  they  think  themselves)  throw 
into  the  waste-paper  basket  or  sell  to  the 
junk  dealer.  The  result  of  his  work  was 
an  array  of  local  literature  that  could  not 
now  be  duplicated. 

In  the  Librarian's  Department  of  Har- 
vard University  very  unusual  and  interest- 
ing collecting  is  now  going  forward  in 
reproducing  the  library  of  the  Reverend 
John  Harvard  that  was  burned  about  a 
century  and  a  half  ago.  President  Dunster 
left  a  rough  list  of  the  books,  some  of 
which  are  so  imperfectly  mentioned  that 
they  cannot  be  identified.  Nevertheless, 
fully  one-haK  of  the  (354?)  books  are  now 
duplicated. 

At  the  Armory  of  the  Cadets,  among  the 
many  trophies  and  relics  of  the  War  for  the 
Union  there  gathered,  largely  by  the  Loyal 
Legion,  is  the  immense  and  precious  col- 

[24] 


COLLECTORS 

lection  of  portraits  and  views  made  and 
mounted  by  Colonel  Arnold  A.  Rand,  who 
has  thus  proved  himself  one  of  the  heroes 
in  the  Army  of  Collectors. 

All  of  us  know  that,  among  the  many 
dispersions  in  the  last  thirty  years,  there 
have  been  several  that  were  events  of  note 
in  their  time;  for  instance,  the  Wm. 
Menzies  in  New  York,  1875;  the  G.  E. 
Hart  (of  Montreal)  in  Boston,  and  the 
S.  L.  M.  Barlow  in  New  York,  both  1890, 
and  the  George  Livermore,  1894,  and 
Charles  Deane,  1898,  both  in  Boston.  In 
recent  years,  indeed,  the  number  of  sales 
notable  in  some  way,  and  worth  recalling, 
is  impressively  large.  Additionally,  in  this 
period,  we  realize  that  our  Club  is  old 
enough  to  supply  examples  of  the  disper- 
sion of  the  gatherings  of  collectors.  Like 
the  five  just  named  they  contained  Ameri- 
cana. In  1899  was  sold  the  large  library  of 
C.  Eadward  Pratt,  and  two  years  later  that 
of  Frederick  W.  French,  remarkable  for 
fine  bindings,  first  editions,  and  rarities,  all 

[25] 


COLLECTORS 

suited  to  the  taste  of  the  times  and  pro- 
ducing in  no  few  cases  record  prices.  In 
November,  also  1901,  were  sold  the  collec- 
tions of  John  Haigh,  largely  Masonic. 

And  now  at  the  close  of  this  review  of 
collecting  comes  the  old  question  cui  bono? 
—  and  on  this  subject  it  is  easy  to  answer. 
From  personal  to  public  reasons  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  good  in  it.  Few  human 
tastes,  as  they  might  be  called,  rival  it  in 
value.  To  the  collector  himself  it  is  con- 
stant pleasure  and  improvement.  His  gath- 
ering is  often  from  obscure  places,  often 
insecure  for  rarities  and  treasures.  He  is 
a  preserver  as  well  as  collector,  he  is  no 
unimportant  agent  in  civilization.  He  may 
have  the  trials  of  Greorge  Thomason,  and 
his  heirs  the  loss  that  after  weary  years 
came  to  the  heirs  of  that  heroic  collector, 
but  a  great  work  for  country  and  for  civili- 
zation will  have  been  achieved.  Or,  he 
may  have  the  monumental  glory  of  Brown, 
of  Lenox,  of  Wallace,  of  Grenville.  What- 
ever the  outcome,  he  has  had  honorable 

[26] 


COLLECTORS 

pleasure,  and  has  done  good  service  in  his 
time,  and,  it  may  be  added,  for  long  coming 
time. 

Let  us  keep  in  mind  the  words  of  Milton: 
"  A  good  book  is  the  precious  life  blood  of 
a  master-spirit,  embalmed  and  treasured  up 
on  purpose,  to  a  life  beyond  life." 


MENU  OF  THE  DINNER 


Club  of  Odd  Volumes 

Annual  Meeting 

Algonquin  Club,  Boston 

December  18,  1907 


Menu 


CLAMS 

OYSTER  SOUP 

BAKED   CODFISH   IN   CREAM  FRIED   FROST   FISH 

HAUNCH   OP   VENISON,    ROASTED 

SAUaUETASH 

EELS    A    LA    MARECHALB 

ROAST  WILD   GOOSE 

BAKED   INDIAN    PUDDING  CRANBERRY  TARTS 

APPLE    PIE 

AMERICAN    CHEESE 


The  First  Celebration  of  the  Landing 
of  the  Pilgrims 

Extract  from  the  records  of  the  Old  Colony  Club  of 
Plymouth  of  date  Friday,  December  22,  1769. 

"  The  Old  Colony  Club,  agreeable  to  a  vote  passed  the 
20th  inst.,  met  in  commemoration  of  the  landing  of  their 
worthy  ancestors  at  this  place.  *  *  *  *  At  half  after  two 
a  decent  repast  was  served  up,  which  consisted  of  the 
following  dishes,  namely: 

1.  A  large  baked  Indian  whortleberry  pudding 

2.  A  dish  of  sauquetash 

3.  A  dish  of  clams 

4.  A  dish  of  oysters  and  a  dish  of  codfish 

5.  A  haunch  of  venison  roasted  by  the  first  jack  brought 

to  the  colony 

6.  A  dish  of  sea  fowl 

7.  A  ditto  of  frost-fish  and  eels 

8.  An  apple  pie 

9.  A  course  of  cranberry  tarts,  and  cheese  made  in  the 

Old  Colony,  dressed  in  the  plainest  manner. 

(all  appearances  of  luxury  and  extravagance  being 

avoided,  in  imitation  of  our  worthy  ancestors 

whose  memory  we  shall  ever  respect.)" 


/py/ 


